Saturday, June 21, 2008

Cherenkov Art

"Submerged in a pool of water at Hanford Site are 1,936 stainless-steel nuclear-waste capsules containing cesium and strontium. Combined, they contain over 120 million curies of radioactivity. It is estimated to be the most curies under one roof in the United States. The blue glow is created by the which describes the electromagnetic radiation emitted when a charged particle, giving off energy, moves faster than light through a transparent medium. The temperatures of the capsules are as high as 330 degrees Fahrenheit. The pool of water serves as a shield against radiation; a human standing one foot from an unshielded capsule would receive a lethal dose of radiation in less than 10 seconds. Hanford is among the most contaminated sites in the United States."

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PlanetBye

The Science Antenna

Credit: NRAO/AUI and J. Hibbard

PlanetBye is a blog run by Bente Lilja Bye aka Stellare. PlanetBye covers mainly scientific topics but also completely random topics like art, social media, personal ramblings etc. The posts on this blog are generally short with links to further reading and sources of information. Clicking on images is encouraged.